CJ goes from '˜fat friend' to fitness coach

Now she has taken up a career as a personal trainer after losing six stone.

The 27-year-old, of North End in Portsmouth, works at Fit4Less gym in Stanhope Road, and she is determined to help people who are in the same position she was in.

‘I got fed up of being the fat friend,’ said Charlotte, who is known as CJ.

‘I remember I went shopping with my best friend and she was moaning about not being able to fit into a size 8, when the shop we were in didn’t even stock my size.’

But it wasn’t easy for her to begin with.

She said: ‘It was quite a complicated, long process. I started off going to Rosemary Conley slimming club. I lost a couple of stone but then the group closed.

‘Then I went to Zumba but the instructor I had fell pregnant so I had to stop doing that. I then joined a gym and was given a personal trainer who devised me a six-week programme.

‘Four weeks into that programme, my trainer left.

‘The gym set me up with another trainer and then two weeks later she left, and that’s when I started trying to do it myself.’

Charlotte’s obstacles are what motivated her to become a personal trainer herself, to make sure that no one else went through the same.

She said: ‘I had such a bad experience with everything, and I don’t want others to have that. I have found something I am interested in and something I enjoy doing.

‘It took me two years to get this job though, mainly because I didn’t have any experience.’

Peter Cheeseman, general manager of Fit4Less, said: ‘CJ is an energetic member of the team who is always smiling and engaging with customers to try and offer support and assistance on all aspects of their health and fitness challenges.

‘She offers an amazing insight into weight loss and can really identify with the challenges and difficulties of losing weight as she has experienced this first hand in her amazing journey which saw her lose six stone.’